Chelsea secured a dramatic victory against Lyon in the Women’s Champions League quarter-finals at Stamford Bridge last night.
The Blues failed to capitalise on a 1-0 advantage from the first leg, with Vanessa Gilles scoring for the defending champions in the 77th minute to bring the tie level.
Proceedings went from bad to worse for Chelsea in extra-time after Sara Däbritz put Lyon in front in the 110th minute.
With the minutes ticking away, it looked like Chelsea boss Emma Hayes would fail to win the Champions League for yet another season.
But in the dying seconds of the game, Lauren James was fouled in the box, with the referee eventually giving the penalty after an agonising wait as VAR looked at the incident.
Hayes could barely watch, but Maren Mjelde kept her cool to score the penalty and take the match to a shoot-out.
Chelsea goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger was the hero as she saved two penalties, stopping the final kick from Lindsay Horan to give her side a 4-3 shoot-out victory.
But that wasn’t the only drama to take place. Earlier in the match, Melanie Leupolz was left covered in blood after she was caught by Lyon player Daniëlle van de Donk.
What happened to Melanie Leupolz during Chelsea vs Lyon?
Van de Donk accidentally hit Leupolz across the face as they both jumped for the ball in the 64th minute.
The Chelsea midfielder, who has recently returned to football after having her first child, fell to the ground and clutched her face.
Despite the player clearly struggling with a head injury, the referee did not stop the game immediately, only blowing her whistle a minute later.
Leupolz lifted her head to reveal her face was covered in blood, before remonstrating with the referee for not stopping the match. Hayes was also seen complaining on the touchline.
There was then a lengthy stoppage in play as the Chelsea medical team cleaned Leupolz’s face up and stopped the bleeding from her nose, before the match got back underway.
Video: Watch Melanie Leupolz complain to referee after face injury
Melanie Leupolz’s brilliant response to horrible injury
Leupolz could fortunately see the funny side of her injury, posting a brilliant Instagram post on the incident afterwards.
“At least the colour of my nails are fitting,” she wrote, referring to her bright red nail varnish.
Chelsea will now take on Barcelona in the semi-finals of the Women’s Champions League. The Blues suffered a 4-0 defeat to the same side in the 2021 final.
Arsenal and Wolfsburg will contest the other semi-final, meaning there is still potential for this year’s final to be between two English teams.
